The screening programme of RIFF 2011, which will take place from September 22 to October 2, is taking shape, day by day. Reykjavik International Film Festival cheerily announces that Bill Morrison´s The Miners' Hymns has been confirmed for "Sound on Sight", the section of music related films. Icelandic neo-classical composer Jóhann Jóhannsson wrote the original score which has been met with tremendous applause.
The Miner's Hymns is an impressive coordination of images and sound with Jóhannsson's music as the only source of sound - the film has no dialogue. The score was written for a brass ensemble, pipe organ, percussion and electronics. The film was premiered at the Tribeca International Film Festival in April this year and revolves around the legacy of the coal mining industry of Northern-England, which was a pillar of the entire society until it was shut down in the 1980's, with grave consequences for the economy as well as the culture of the area.
Jóhannsson's orchestration for the score is no coincidence, with brass music being a major part of the cultural scene of the coal mining towns for the last 200 years. Many of them are still blowing full steam, even if the mines have been closed. The work is thus "a kind of requiem for a lifestyle and culture that has mostly vanished", to put it in the composer's own words.
The music is played by the
NASUWT Riverside Band, a brass ensemble founded in 1877 in Durham. The band has mostly featured actual coal miners and nowadays, the descendants of the same coal miners.
Stay tuned for more titles to be confirmed shortly!